Dust Ridden Steel
by Double0h
Summary: It was strange. Usually, the only thing that he would ever wake up to was a decaying roof somewhere in the middle of a dead city on a dying world. He would wake up to gunfire or the crunch of gravel under a massive steel boot. But this time, he awoke to the sound of something he had only ever heard on old Pre-war holo-disks; Arthur Maxson woke to the sound of a distant police siren
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: This story was created for no personal gain other than enjoyment and improvement on my own writing skills. None of the characters within this story, or the universes they come from belong to me. RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth and Fallout belongs to Bethesda. Please support both series.**

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Chapter 1: Ruby Rose and Arthur Maxson

It was strange. Usually, the only thing that he would ever wake up to was a decaying roof somewhere in the middle of a dead city on a dying world. He would wake up to gunfire or the crunch of gravel under a massive steel boot. He would wake up to the stench of irradiated meat being roasted over rotten wood. Sometimes, he would even wake up to the whimpering of men and women who were slowly being pulled from their bodies by burns or bullet holes.

But this time, Arthur Maxson awoke to something totally different. He awoke to the sound of something he had only ever heard on old holodisks and in an errant dream or two. He was pulled from his slumber by the sound of a police siren.

When he opened his eyes, he was greeted with a black sky, the walls of two neighboring buildings, and the cold night air prickling his face. He looked to his sides to see a street at either end of the alley he found himself in. He found it peculiar how the concrete and shops across the two strips of asphalt seemed to be intact considering the state of the world.

Even more unusual though, was the apparent existence of power coursing through this part of the city. Bright light illuminated the front of the shops and the roads before them as if the world had never ended. As if almost every other manmade structure in the world wasn't a bombed out husk that stood through some form of pure luck.

He wondered absently where he was. Last thing he could remember, he was patrolling the D.C. ruins by himself because there was nothing better to do. Then again, that was all he had been doing for the Brotherhood of Steel ever since Paladin Vargas had been appointed as Elder following the death of Sarah Lyons. Not exactly the best position for a Maxson but the Brotherhood wasn't exactly running right ever since the final descendant of the Lyons family passed.

Ever since her death, Vargas had been trying to hold the Eastern chapter together through seemingly sheer will power. Will power he just simply didn't have. Arthur could see it; he could see the brotherhood slowly coming undone at the hinges thanks to the split in ideals between the ways of the west and the ways of Elder Lyons senior. It was painful to watch too. He had believed deeply in the ideals that Elder Owyn had focused on following the eastern chapter's founding.

Unfortunately, keeping the brotherhood together following the death of Sarah would require a very fine balance between the new and old ideals. It would require someone who could return the chapter's focus towards finding technology while keeping the safety of the people as a side objective at best. It would be a very delicate process to be sure, and Elder Vargas was definitely not capable of doing so; no matter how honorable or passionate he was. The man was a soldier, not a politician. Regardless, before the Brotherhood's problems could be fixed, he needed to get back home.

Figuring that it really didn't matter how he ended up in a random ally and that finding his way home was more important, Arthur brought himself to a sitting position and finally took note of his own personal attire. He was fully equipped in T-60 power armor; complete with a jetpack and a helmet that rested between his legs. A grin splayed across the young knight's face as he saw the small tally marks etched into the side of the angular helmet. He lifted the piece so that he could peer at its front and stared at the black eyepieces and shiny respirator integrated into the face piece of the armored headgear. He always thought that the helmet looked like it was crafted into a constant snarl.

Flipping the helmet upside down in his hand, Arthur spun it so that the mask faced the proper way before quickly placing it on his head, locking it into place, and listening to the short hiss as the helmet connected with the suit's air filtration unit on the back of the armor. He ran a quick diagnostic check on his suit and found that each part was exactly as he had left it.

Every piece had been optimized to run at peak efficiency, and his helmet even had a built-in data base filled with every document that the brotherhood had ever collected. After giving a small nod to himself after looking over the condition of his armor, Arthur quickly rose to his feet in a squat and reached to the small of his back to find exactly what he had hoped to be there.

He pulled a long barreled laser rifle from its holster before thumbing the safety on the bulky weapon. Raising the gun to aim at the nearest street, he slowly made his way to the end of the alley, keeping his senses focused incase anything decided to test its luck. He listened to the sound of his massive armored steps clanking onto the concrete in a slow rhythm as he neared the exit. He watched as more buildings began to come into sight and found himself extremely curious as to how he had found himself in such a well-preserved settlement.

Coming to a stop at the end of the alley, Arthur began to gawk at the city around him while his rifle fell to hang at his side pointed to the ground. The road stretched on for at least three blocks to his left before coming to a split that forced it to the left and right. On his right, the street split again, but only one building down from where he currently stood. But that wasn't what made him so shocked. What did that was the fact that each and every building as far as he could see was perfectly fine.

No broken windows, no collapsed in walls, and no faded or chipping paint. The entire thing seemed unreal. He could even see lights in each small window, a luxury that most people in the wastes severely lack. The craziest thing though was the trees. Green trees! Three Dog may have talked about their existence before but everyone had always agreed that the man had probably only imagined the plants, but these? These were actually here! The very sight made Arthur want to rub his eyes, if not for the helmet in the way.

He really didn't know what to think. How could a town like this really exist? A town with absolutely no signs of any form of destruction was unheard of! Was he dreaming? Did he die? No. No he couldn't be dead or his armor wouldn't be here. And he certainly couldn't be dreaming because he could feel the armor encasing his body. That meant that wherever he was, it was somewhere with enough luck or progress to be able to rebuild their society to at least give the appearance of a pre-war city.

Finally reigning in his thoughts, Arthur shook his head to fully clear his mind before bringing his rifle back into both hands. keeping the rifle at the ready, he moved to a shop at the end of the street to his right, figuring his best bet would be to talk to a local about where on Earth he could possibly be so he could start making his way home.

He could focus on trying to form actual relations with this place after the Brotherhood wasn't in shambles. while he walked to the store, now standing to his full height on account of the pointlessness of stealth on a fully lit street, He looked to the sign above the shop to read out the name: From Dust Till Dawn.

The name seemed a little strange to him. Honestly, he had no idea what he would find in a store with such a name. On his approach, he saw the owner of the store, some old Asian man, look up from his register to see Arthur in his hulking suit of armor open the door as he placed his rifle back in its holster. The door gave a quiet ping to alert the old man that a customer had entered, regardless of how useless it had been considering how hard it would be not to notice the armored warrior.

Arthur quietly glanced around the store. The left wall held an assortment of pipes and tubes that came in from the ceiling above and stopped at about chest height. Each one was made of clear glass, showing each tube held a different colored liquid of some sort. He then looked to the wall behind it and noticed its Victorian style that consisted of a dark grey plaster and fancy wooden designs that made up the lower half of the wall.

The boy then turned to look at the shelves and isles that were made of deep brown wood much like the material used on the walls. The isles surrounded the majority of the store, including the far right wall, and made Arthur unable to see the back one at all. Laying his eyes back on the counter, Arthur noticed that it was actually a display case filled with different colored gems and jewels with small price tags lined up beside each one.

"Hello," Arthur began through the speaker in his helmet as he approached the counter. The slight robotic tone that the armor gave his voice hid his young age as the old man behind the counter simply nodded cautiously to him. "I was wondering if you could give me some directions."

The old man nodded again and pointed to the back of the store.

"You can find an assortment of maps on the back wall next to the magazines and comics," he said in an old creaky voice.

"Thank you," Arthur said politely, attempting to be as courteous as possible so his eventual return was met with a handshake and not a flurry of bullets.

Making his way past the counter and wooden shelves, the young teen headed in the direction that the old, wrinkled man had indicated. He made sure to walk very softly while on the smooth tiles. Several tons of armor tended to leave rather large footprints no matter what surface you were stepping on after all.

Once past the aisles, Arthur found several smaller shelves made specifically for an assortment of books and magazines which also appeared to be made out of the same wood the other shelves had been made of. He took note of a small figure cloaked in red that appeared to be about his age standing before the magazines and quietly reading one as they rocked back and forth on their feet. Deciding to leave them be, Arthur moved to the maps and began looking through each one.

Again, the boy found himself baffled by the ability of the local people to create products like the small assortment of books and pamphlets before him. The paper each one was made of was a pure white and the words upon them were printed perfectly, much like the papers and documents from before the destruction of the old world. He quietly took the first one in his hand and began thumbing through it, wondering to himself what he could do to convince the Brotherhood to trade with these people in the future. Having good relations with such a place would certainly be beneficial in the eyes of both the Western idealists and the Eastern idealists.

Several moments later, while Arthur was still thumbing through the small pamphlet that described the settlement as a place called Vale, Arthur was interrupted by a man shouting to him and the teen beside him.

"Hands in the air!" he shouted angrily, garnering the attention of Arthur.

The boy slowly placed the map down and raised his head to stare at the wall before him as his arms fell to his sides. Apparently, thieves were still around, even in a place like this.

"Hey! I said hands in the air," he yelled again, "you got a death wish or something?"

Arthur simply turned his head to the side to peer at the man behind him. What he found, didn't impress him. It was some kind of suited thug, complete with massive red shades and fedora. Arthur almost chuckled at the sight of him as he approached the two with some blade that obviously wouldn't do anything to him.

"Listen," Arthur said calmly, "You don't want to fight me."

The man simply sneered at his response as he thumbed a small button on the side of his weapon's handle. The blade quickly folded in on itself before changing into a gun by some strange feat of technology. Arthur's eyes widened at the sight as the man approached him and the hooded bystander next to him with the gun pointed right at Arthur's head.

However, Arthur wasn't scared by the idea of being shot. He was more surprised by watching a blade become a firearm. His mind immediately went to finding a way to obtain information on the tech eventually. Surely, such an ability would be extremely useful when a knight or Paladin needed to switch from long distance to close quarters combat.

"Hands up," he said again, regaining Arthur's attention. "I don't care what kind of movie characters you're trying to imitate so don't be stupid and put your hands up _hero_." The last word dripped with sarcasm as he came to a stop directly behind the two and yanked down the hood of the second "hero" as the thug had put it.

When the hood fell, the two saw as the face of a small fifteen year old girl with short, dark red hair and pale white skin appeared with large earphones atop her head. She blinked at the sight of the two with big, pale gray eyes before the looter pointed at his ear, trying to get her to remove the earphones. She complied quickly, pulling them down around her neck.

"Yes?" she asked in an extremely confused tone. The thug glared at her from behind his shades.

"I said," the thug growled, "hands in the air!" To accentuate his point, he aimed the gun directly at her head, momentarily forgetting about the armored man beside him who stood a head taller than the outlaw while inside the man-shaped tank.

Her eyes narrowed at the demand. "Are you… Robbing me?" she asked slowly, as if the weapon he held inches from her face hadn't made his point clear enough.

"Yes!" He shouted angrily, moving the gun slightly closer to her skull.

Arthur, who had watched the exchange almost baffled by the thug's dismissal of a man in power armor, simply grabbed the man by the throat. He lifted the crook in the air with one hand, deciding to put an end to the robbery and be done with it. The man gave a yelp of surprise as the gun fell from his hand in his haste to remove the massive metal fingers from around his throat.

"I warned you," Arthur said with a quiet snarl, "that you didn't want to rob this store." The man clawed at the massive hand that kept him suspended by his neck, trying desperately to get air into his lungs.

"Now I have to teach you the hard way," Arthur grunted, throwing the thug back to the front of the store while he spoke. the action ended up sending the unlucky man through a window and onto the street.

"My name is Arthur Maxson," he began in a loud, confident, voice as he walked casually towards the front.

His face hardened into a scowl when he saw several other thugs begin to converge on him with blades matching that of the first robber clipped to their belts. The loud thumping sound of his footsteps echoed throughout the store while he strode forth, creating a harsh rhythm.

"I am the last descendant of the Maxson line," he continued as he came to a stop beside the display case the owner now cowered behind and drew his rifle from his back to hold across his chest in preparation for what was about to come. "The same Maxson who founded the Brotherhood of Steel."

The group of thieves simply drew their weapons and moved in on him like wolves preparing to pounce their prey. "Therefore, I have been trained and prepped to kill a wide assortment of abominations in order to further the brotherhood's interests."

The apparent leader of the group, a man in a white coat with orange hair sticking out of the bottom of a bowler's hat, simply shook his head at the sight as he leaned on a cane and watched the spectacle. "And ensuring that lowlifes like you don't go around terrorizing people just trying to live peacefully is one of those interests."

"Get him," the leader said casually as he pulled a cigar from his coat and lit it.

The group quickly complied with the order, each swinging their blades at him. However, even with their strikes being far harder than Arthur expected, the only thing it did was cause several of them to break in half on contact with the massive plates of metal while the rest glanced off with little more than a small spark and slight scratch on his armor's paint being the only indication that they had even made contact in the first place. Arthur simply stood in the center of the group listening to the silence as his opponents stared at him in shock.

"Pathetic," Arthur said with a tired shake of his head after finally deciding to even acknowledge their attempt at harming him.

Arthur then quickly brought the butt of his rifle into the face of the thug directly in front of him. The man's head bucked back in pain, his hands flying to his nose on reflex. Next, Arthur brought the rifle down to his hip and fired several beams of energy into the man's chest, causing him to fall directly onto his back.

The other thieves then went into motion, attempting to find a weakness to exploit in the armor. Several who still had intact weapons began jabbing desperately at the joints in the armor, only to find that the fabric covering the sections were made of something far more durable than leather or cloth.

When one of the blades came for Arthur's neck, he quickly snatched the weapon in the Armor's metallic hand and snapped it like a twig. He then threw the piece in his hand behind him before punching the man directly in the chest and sending him flying back. The others finally gave up on trying to stab him and instead jumped back before shifting to their pistols and putting up a constant stream of fire that simply bounced off of him like rain drops.

In response, the knight shouldered his rifle and returned fire, placing three rounds into each thug's chest, knocking them to the ground before moving to the next target with brutal efficiency. As his opponents dropped like flies, Arthur heard the sound of something far larger fly past him, causing him to look back to the front of the store to find the young teen in red holding a massive scythe to the leader thug's neck as rose pedals slowly fluttered to the floor around them.

He watched as the man simply grinned at the sight of the ridiculously massive weapon before batting the girl away with his cane, causing her to slide across the floor until she finally came to a stop with her Scythe held before her, ready to lash out again.

Arthur was dumbfounded by the display of the seemingly impossible situation as the girl began swinging her weapon in massive arcs almost faster than the eye could see while the man dodged each one before knocking her back with what looked to Arthur like a normal steel cane. The two continued to slash and stab at each other, leaving massive gouges in the floor, and cutting shelves in half before Arthur was pulled from his trance by a bullet bouncing directly off of his helmet.

He then returned to taking out the remaining henchmen before turning back to see that the girl and leader of the robbery's fight had migrated to the street. He watched the teen jump into the air, spinning her scythe to build up momentum before flinging it down towards her opponent.

The man jumped back at the last second, allowing the weapon to embed itself deep into the road. As the Maxson heir noticed the youth struggle to remove the scythe from the ground, Arthur quickly vaulted over the window sill where the glass that had been broken out by the first goon he had thrown at the start of the fight had been before charging directly at the orange haired man.

While he closed in, the thief was alerted to his approaching adversary by the thundering thump and crunch sounds emanating from Maxson's feet, allowing him to dive out of the way of Arthur who had attempted to shoulder-tackle him. As the teen skidded to a halt beside the young girl that had been in the middle of pulling her scythe out of the ground from her over-head slash, their target rolled to a standing position and walked back towards the store, never letting the two leave his sight.

The two watched as the man held his cane like some form of side arm while taking cautious steps back, giving himself distance from the teens. Finally prying her weapon from the ground, Arthur and the scythe wielder fell into their respective combat stances side by side as their enemy glanced to his right and grinned.

"Well," he began briskly, "I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening. But, I'm afraid this is where we'll have to part ways."

As he spoke, he quickly raised the cane as a small iron sight popped up from the bottom part of it. The two tensed as a large ball of fire blasted out of the end of the cane-turned-canon with a resounding crack. Reacting quickly, the girl propelled herself in the air using some form of weapon integrated into the head of the Scythe.

Meanwhile, Arthur simply threw his left arm up to cover his eyes as the blast connected with the ground at his feet, causing him to stumble back several steps. Arthur regained his footing soon after and shook his head side to side before looking up to find that the man had managed to reach the top of a nearby building and the girl who had thrown herself into the air had managed to land in front of From Dust Till Dawn.

Arthur looked to his ally whose eyes narrowed slightly before she quickly glanced behind her to see the store owner looking at them with concern.

"You okay if we go after him?" She asked hurriedly.

The old man's face dawned a look of determination as he nodded at her. She looked back to Arthur and gave him a quick thumbs-up before using her Scythe's second feature to fling her to the top of the roof.

Arthur immediately followed suit, using his armor's integrated jetpack to launch him up after the girl. He landed to find her standing behind the robber with her Scythe held with the head pointed backwards, ready to launch her at the man. Arthur jogged up to stand directly to the left of her with his rifle trained directly on the back of the thief's head.

"Hey!" The girl called as he finally slowed at the end of the building. Arthur tightened his grip on the rifle and bent his knees slightly, preparing to fire should anything happen.

"It's over," Arthur said calmly through his helmet, allowing the speaker to amplify his voice. "Give up before I end you."

If he said anything, the two wouldn't have been able to hear as the engines from a flying vehicle of some sort rose from the side of the building, blowing the man's coat back violently and forcing the girl to look away momentarily as it opened its hatch to allow the man entry.

Arthur, not having to worry about the wind thanks to his armor, immediately began firing at the man, managing to hit him in the shoulder and elicit a small yelp from the outlaw as smoke rose from his ruined jacket before he quickly turned and produced a small red crystal.

"End of the line kiddies!" He yelled above the scream of the engines and howl of the disturbed wind as he threw the small gem at the two's feet, naturally forcing the eyes of both Arthur and the girl to track it on instinct.

The stone rolled across the ground for a moment until it finally stopped only inches from where the two stood. Realizing what had just occurred, Arthur jerked his head up to see the man grin victoriously before he fired off another blast at the rock from his cane.

Arthur gritted his teeth while he grabbed the girl's hood to throw her as far back as he could while he stared at the flaming projectile hurtling towards them. Then, with a loud shout, he brought his arms up in an "x" shape, still clutching his laser rifle by the barrel in his left hand while the girl was thrown clear.

He felt his teeth grind together painfully as the blast threw him back to the edge of the roof and he heard the deafening boom of the explosion. During his small flight, he finally lost his grip on the rifle, along with his hearing, allowing it to clatter to the ground. He felt his body rattle within the armored cage that encased it until he eventually skidded to a stop face down on the now ruined roof.

After simply laying there for a few moments, Arthur slowly rose up to one knee and allowed his head to hang lazily from the neck, all the while looking through his Armor's HUD to find that the blast had only managed to ruin the suit's paint job, and that Arthur himself only had minor bruising and fatigue after the blast along with a momentary loss of hearing. One thing was certain, the armor wasn't wrong about his condition. He could feel his body ache, and he wanted nothing more than to kill the thief and sit the hell down to rest until the ringing in his ears finally stopped.

Finally looking up from the ground after running through the analysis the suit had done, he found that that rest might not be as far away as he had thought. A few feat ahead of Arthur, the girl in red stood beside a taller blonde woman wearing some type of business attire with complete with glasses and… A cape? He watched as the woman turned to the teen and seemed to scold her for a moment before eventually turning to see Arthur. The boy watched her cautiously as the ringing in his ears finally receded to allow him to hear the wind blow past quietly.

She seemed to be unsure of what to say to him really. Her brow was furrowed in a look of concern as her bright green eyes looked over his scorched armor. Then, the younger girl, the one about his age, walked over to him with a sheepish grin and offered him a hand. Arthur quickly waved it away before forcing his aching muscles to raise him up into a standing position.

The blonde approached the two after another moment of apparent indecision. As she did so, she shook her head and placed a neutral look upon her face to make herself seem more certain. Arthur could hear the clicking of her heels on what was left of the now scorched and cracked concrete roof as she neared and Arthur forced himself to stand slightly straighter in an attempt to appear in control of the situation.

"Ma'am," he said politely while she approached, trying not to offend someone who could have very well been extremely important to the locals.

"Yes," she said cautiously, almoslike she was still debating whether or not to speak her mind.

"First, I would like to thank you for protecting Miss Rose tonight." She began in an uptight and official manner much like what her appearance would suggest, except for the… cape. Arthur absently wondered if it was normal for women to wear capes and cloaks with their attires considering the appearance of the two women in front of him.

"However," the blonde continued, returning Arthur's thoughts to the conversation, "I am going to need you to follow me to the police station for questioning concerning the attempted robbery that has just occurred."

"Understood," Arthur replied with the signs of his fatigue beginning to show through. Besides, he still had many questions himself. Questions that needed answers. "However, I would like to ask a few questions of my own." The woman cocked an eyebrow at the request before nodding for him to continue.

"To begin," he said, "I would like to ask where I might be in relation to D.C., as well as ask what form of technology Miss Rose and the thieves were using to allow them the ability to shift weapons from blades to guns and how a Scythe of such a massive size can be wielded efficiently in combat."

As asked this, he peered out of his helmet to the roof in order to locate his rifle several feet behind the two women before moving to retrieve it.

"Well," The older of the two women began with no small amount of confusion in her voice, "I have to apologize, but I'm afraid that I have no clue where D.C. is."

Arthur frown. returning the rifle to its holster on the small of his back, he looked out at the city before him.

"Uh," Miss Rose began after the older lady finished, "about the… Technology, that's kind of common stuff around the world isn't it?" Arthur could hear the worry in the young girl's voice, as if she were talking to someone seconds away from some kind of mental breakdown.

Arthur simply scoffed at the idea of transformable weapons and six-foot tall weapons being common around the world as he turned back to the two women, and immediately lost track of all thought at the sight before him. And who wouldn't stare slack jawed at what sat in the air behind the girls? It was like something out of a Pre-war science-fiction novel. The moon, the giant white rock in the sky, was shattered into little, tiny, miniscule pieces.

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 **Author's note: So I have been playing around with the idea of actually sitting down and focusing on a story that I intend to stick with from beginning to end. I know my previous two works died out quickly but I honestly think that I can really sit down and finish this one from beginning to end. I already have the plot written up to season two of RWBY with Arthur tagging along to make his own mark on the group and with the way season three has been progressing, I think that Arthur is going to have plenty of personal enemies in the form of Atlas and general Ironwood as the story progresses. Keep in mind though that I have no idea how often I will update. That will be something that will only happen when I have the time to focus on this and am not worrying about keeping my grades up so I can get into college.**

 **I will be trying to stay pretty true to the original plot of RWBY for a fairly long time because I really don't see Arthur getting too mad with the people of Remnant until he finds out about what Atlas has been cooking up. He will be very slow to trust others with his equipment and he won't just go blabbing that he is from another world once he realizes that he really has left Earth behind him now. I also wanted to have Arthur be around Ruby's age because it is immediately before his promotion to Elder and I wanted to have him be a little less experienced. (I also kind of wanted to play around with the idea of Arthur and Ruby as a pairing, but you can't prove that!)**

 **That being said, Arthur is going to be extremely strong so long as he is using power armor. He has been trained to fight giant mutated abominations and psychotic murderers for years and fought off a Deathclaw single handedly at the age of fourteen. But when out of the armor he will be about on par with a spec-ops soldier. This means he will only be capable of going toe-to-toe with people like Mercury and Emerald when he has his armor.**

 **Furthermore, I will warn you right away that I have no idea how nuclear fission or fusion work; nor do I know what goes into making power armor tick. Therefore, how he keeps his armor and weapons running will mostly be an enigma. Luckily, the nature of the brotherhood means that I can attribute his ability make fusion cells and fusion cores to it being common knowledge among brotherhood soldiers on how to refill spent cores and cells. Is this a cop-out? Probably. But honesty, I don't really know enough about the details of energy weapons and equipment to go into depth about them.**

 **So with my long note out of the way, allow me to welcome you to my newest fiction: Dust Ridden Steel! Please Review and let me know of anything that seems off or wrong, criticism is great considering I want to really try and make this story as good as I possibly can.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: This story was created for no personal gain other than enjoyment and improvement on my own writing skills. None of the characters within this story, or the universes they come from belong to me. RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth and Fallout belongs to Bethesda. Please support both series.**

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Chapter 2: New Home

Arthur stared at the sky for a full minute as his mind scrambled to form some kind of answer for the nightmare that seemed to stare him in the face. To the young knight's dismay, his head continued to draw blanks. Of all the horrid kinds of technology that man had managed to build to slaughter itself, never had they been able to completely break something like the moon. Not even the atomic bombs that had left the once green Earth almost unable to support life could have done this.

"Sir?" Miss Rose asked hesitantly, "Are you okay?"

Arthur couldn't manage to bring himself to respond. Instead, he allowed his legs to give out as his knees landed on the already abused roof and create a small tremor that kicked up a plume of dust. The contact made a loud crunching sound while more cracks formed in the once smooth surface beneath him. Then, quietly, the boy slowly placed the metallic hands of his armor onto his scorched helmet before disconnecting it from the rest of his steel shell with an audible click and huff of air.

He felt his hair stick to the top of his helmet from the sweat that the fight had caused before it began to fall back down. In the front, most of the waterlogged strands came to rest just above his eyebrows, covering most of his forehead while the rest landed about wherever it pleased, creating a black nest upon the rest of his cranium. The helmet tumbled to the ground with a hollow clanking sound. Arthur looked back to the glowing shards of white that floated in the distance with a shell shocked expression.

"What happened?" he asked quietly, his voice cracking. he could already feel despair beginning to well up within him.

When no response came, Arthur looked down to see Miss Rose's eyes widened in surprise as she raised a hand to cover her mouth in shock while the blonde's eyebrows had shot up in disbelief. After his gazed rested upon them for a moment, the two seemed to realize that they had missed his question when he had revealed his young age to them.

The elder of the two was the first to fully recover after she blinked her eyes several times before her mind focused on what he had asked. Arthur watched the gears in the woman's head slowly work out the nature of his question when she looked from the armored teen to the city behind her.

"To the moon?" she asked with a tone of hesitance, almost like she expected to be corrected when she looked to him for the correct answer. But she had hit the nail on the head.

The boy nodded in the affirmative. He felt a small breeze of cold air bite into the side of his face, sending a chill down his spine. Arthur could feel his body shiver within his armor as the girls both looked back to the large rocks that illuminated the night. He almost didn't want to know the answer, like him not knowing would somehow make the sight go away.

After all, the destruction of an object big enough to effect the tides of the planet could lead to any number of terrifying outcomes. Outcomes that could mean the end of Earth; this time, for good. Arthur shook his head violently, an attempt to remove the thoughts of another apocalypse from his mind while he mentally clawed through every physics lesson he had ever learned in his life, trying desperately to find some way that the world might crawl from the ashes again. He looked back to the two girls as he continued to think of something, anything at all, that might save them.

The two looked back to him, each with an expression of concern on their faces. They glanced to one another, likely trying to figure out who should be the one to answer. Finally, Miss Rose stepped forward reluctantly, like someone approaching a cornered animal.

"It's," she began, a mix of fear and confusion showing in her voice, "It's always been like that." She finished.

Another cold gust of wind blew by, making the girl's cloak flutter to the side while the words hung between the three like a monster they couldn't see, but they knew was there.

"What?" Arthur asked after a moment silence.

"The moon has been in pieces since before life existed on Remnant." The blonde replied, making Arthur turn to her.

he continued to try and make since of what the two had just told him, but he just couldn't seem to do it.

"That's not possible," Arthur said, his mind once again sent scrambling for an answer.

Perhaps he had been knocked unconscious from the blast he had taken at the end of the fight, leading to some kind of twisted dream? No, his body ached, and he wouldn't have been unable to hear when he got up after the blast. He also couldn't be dead for the same reasons. Arthur's face twisted in frustration. All the while, he continued to try and find some way that what the girls had just told him could be rationalized.

"How is that possible?" Arthur asked, bringing his hands up to his head and raking the metallic fingers across his scalp, ruffling the unkempt black hair that covered it.

Was he losing his mind? Did someone drug him? Neither of those conclusions made since either. He was too alert to have been drugged, and his mind couldn't have possibly fallen into insanity in his sleep could it?

He began to scrape the steel fingers up and down his head faster. He began to growl in confusion, fear, and frustration. He continued on, running through a list of possible explanations, each as impossible as the last until he finally stopped all motion and managed to pull himself back under control.

Whatever was going on, it wouldn't do him any good to descend into a panic. So, with all of the calm he could scrape up, Arthur let out a long and breathy sigh. He listened to the sounds of the city around him while his mind began to clear itself of each question and worry it had spawned while he had attempted to make sense of something he had no way of understanding. Not alone, anyway.

He looked up to see the blonde and Miss Rose looking at him in a mix of fear and worry while Arthur mentally prepared himself for the long night ahead. Turning to the elder woman, he gave her a smile to try and show he had fully regained his composure before rising to his feet.

"It seems I have more questions that I'll be needing answers to miss…" Arthur asked.

Stepping forward, he quickly scooped up his helmet and ignored the protests of his tired body while his feet continued to abuse the already ruined roof.

"Glynda Goodwitch," she supplied after a moment of hesitation.

The knight nodded politely, his armored footfalls continuing to make an audible crunching sound and the wind beginning to toss his hair about even more all the while.

"Please," he offered, "Lead the way."

* * *

Arthur stood silently before a bland steel table with a matching pair of chairs tucked in beneath it. Looking around, he found that it was impossible to see much farther than a few feet around the center where the furniture sat on account of the single lamp hanging from the ceiling above.

The light seemed to cast an eerie shadow of Arthur as well, leaving even more of the room in darkness while the young knight waited silently. He could still sense the same feeling of unease that had slowly been rising up within him for the past two hours that he had waited here.

He knew that whatever answers he got, he probably wouldn't like them. Any explanation he received would probably mean some form of bad news, be it that he had been sent to the future, or had found himself in some kind of experiment that a mad scientist had placed him in; one fact would remain the same: Arthur was a long way from home. He let out a tired sigh as he placed his helmet on the table with a small clang before running a hand through his hair.

Then, after several more minutes of waiting, Arthur turned when he heard the door open with a small squeak coming from the unoiled hinges. Silently, he watched a tall man walk into the room quietly.

He wore a black coat and vest over a dark green shirt with a matching green scarf wrapped about his lower half was covered by black dress pants and polished charcoal colored shoes. Arthur took note of the man's silver hair that shined slightly from the single light as it fell about in a disorderly fashion while a small pair of glasses sat on the bridge of the man's nose. His jaw was rather thin and angular, much like his other features while his brown eyes remained locked on Arthur's own blue ones.

"Arthur I presume," the man said casually.

The tone felt completely out of place with the amount of tension that Arthur could feel all about him. He could almost see it like a physical thing. It was obvious whatever the man was going to say, he knew Arthur wasn't going to like it.

"Yes," the boy answered, reaching out with his massive robotic hand for the man to shake.

"It's good to meet you Arthur, I am Professor Ozpin," the man said as he accepted Arthur's hand and shook it quickly before gesturing for Arthur to take a seat.

Arthur shook his head with a small wave of his hand.

"The chair will break Professor," Arthur said.

Ozpin arched an eyebrow at the statement before apparently deciding to leave the matter be for the moment. The young knight remained silent while he watched the man simply pull out a chair and plop down into it with his legs crossed and his forearms placed on the top knee, almost like he was about to converse with an old friend. He looked Arthur up and down for a long moment before he finally decided to speak.

"Now," he said.

He adjusted himself slightly in his chair, most likely in preparation for a long talk before continuing.

"Before we get into the main focus of our conversation, I would like to thank you for protecting young Ruby Rose from harm this evening." Arthur nodded politely, already expecting for him to go through some kind of formality before he said whatever it was he had to say.

"So," The professor said with a sigh as he looked Arthur in the eye, "with that out of the way I suppose I shall just have to dive straight into it."

Arthur's hands clenched in determination before he gave the man a small nod to inform him that he was ready. The man gave him a tired grin in return before he began again.

"Arthur, what is the name of the only planet in the known universe that can sustain life?" he asked.

"Earth," the teen replied quickly, already not liking where this was heading.

He waited nervously while Ozpin looked to the ground in silence and his small grin took on an apologetic look.

"That is wrong," he said in a calm voice. "It is Remnant."

The two remained quiet for a time before Ozpin looked back to Arthur to see him still standing in one spot waiting patiently while despair pooled within the young knight's chest.

"Next question," the silver haired man continued, "what is an aura?"

Arthur thought for a moment, wondering why he would ask about such a word before finally answering.

"An atmosphere around someone or something." He said, shifting in place when he spoke.

Ozpin shook his head slowly. a small shimmer of green light seemed to form about his body while his head continued to move side to side, making Arthur's eyes widen at the sight. The boy had never seen such a thing. The closest thing he had ever witnessed was the sickly glow of an over irradiated ghoul as it stumbled about within the old decaying subways beneath the D.C. ruins. But this was something else entirely.

It looked like some kind of green barrier that glowed about Ozpin's body while he sat there; as if he wasn't doing something that a normal man would deem impossible. Part of him actually wondered if it was even there at all; but Ozpin's next words silenced that theory quickly.

"This," he said after allowing Arthur to stare blankly for a solid minute, "is an aura Arthur."

The boy blinked at the sight for another moment as the green shimmer began to fade. Then, when it fully dissipated from view, Arthur brought his hands to his face and dragged them up and down slowly while he felt his previous panic from the sight of the moon resurface before returning the appendages to his sides.

"What," Arthur began, unsure exactly how to phrase the question.

He could feel a chill run its way down his spine and the stale air in the room felt like it was beginning to thicken to a point where Arthur almost couldn't breathe right. All the while, Ozpin sat on the opposite side of the table, waiting patiently for Arthur to regain his composure.

"What you just witnessed," Ozpin said eventually, either attempting to finally aid the knight, or just simply growing tired of waiting, "was me summoning the physical presence of my soul which the people of Remnant call aura. It's something that everyone learns about at around the age of five; everyone except you, Arthur."

The man finished and his sad smile morphed into a frown while his eyes hardened. The man seemed to be peering straight through the boy, making his nerves even more tense.

"What I am about to tell you may seem insane," the professor said as he leaned forward, "but no matter what I say, I want you to remain calm and refrain from lashing out."

Arthur stared back at the man for a long while, trying to calm himself for what he was about to hear. He could feel his gut twist and turn violently, and his real hands shook on the grips for the controls of the armor, making the metal counterparts turn to fists as a result. The sound of the metal fingers grinding against the palm echoed quietly for a moment before he forced his body still and took a deep, calming breath. He could feel sweat begin to bead on his forehead beneath a forest of hair as he gave Ozpin a confident nod, no matter how unsure he truly was.

Ozpin's eyes closed and his head turned towards the floor beneath Arthur's feet. The teen could see the professor's shoulders rise and fall once when he sighed in what seemed to be a reluctant acceptance of the boy's readiness for what was about to be revealed. Then, he looked back to Arthur again, and began.

"I believe," he said slowly, making Arthur's body tense in nervousness, "that you are from another universe entirely."

"One that exists completely separate from the one Remnant exists in," he finished with a hard stare pointed directly at Arthur.

Arthur stared at him, his face becoming blank while the news hit him with the force of a mini-nuke. He could hear the words echo over and over in his head. Could such a thing be possible? Could he be in an alternate reality that stood on a completely different plane of existence? And if that was the case, then how could he have crossed over into it?

More importantly, how could he go back the other way? Each question he asked himself seemed to just pile upon the last until his mind was just an assortment of questions blocking out any other thought. He felt his stomach lurch as he resisted the urge to allow bile to spew forth from his throat and could see stars in the edges of his vision.

Somehow though, it made a sick kind of sense. It explained how a small fifteen year old girl could swing a giant metal weapon about like it was child's play. It explained why the moon sat in the sky in fragments rather than the white orb that had once been a companion throughout the cold nights in what was left of America's capital city. Finally, it explained how a man with no signs of mutation whatsoever had been able to summon a mystical green light like such a thing was as common as breathing; witch, apparently, for most people in this world it was.

Arthur growled as he blinked away the fuzziness in his vision before taking several long gasps of air to calm his stomach. He found himself leaning on the table for support. The metal groaned in protest to the added weight. He began to grind his teeth together, forcing his body back under control. After staying in his hunched position for another half minute, he slowly looked back to Ozpin to see that the man had a grim expression marring his features.

"You actually handled that far better than I predicted." The man said quietly, allowing the words to fill the now quiet room for a few moments. Arthur chuckled a little after allowing the words to really sink in after he had regained his mental control.

"I'm glad I impressed you then," the teen said in a ragged mumble that held a great deal of sarcasm. Arthur grinned at the man to try and hide what remained of his inner turmoil as the questions continued to itch the back of his head, begging to be answered.

"On the contrary," the man replied, allowing his sad grin to return. "I'm kind of disappointed that I didn't get to hear you scream like a girl."

Arthur blinked at the man for a moment, finding himself caught off guard until the joke truly caught hold of him and made him burst into laughter. He heard his voice echo around him in waves of amusement and fearful recognition of what he had just discovered.

The laughter died out soon enough though. Arthur's worries had clawed at his brain until he could ignore it no longer. The boy's head fell to lull loosely between his shoulders as the last of the sound left him. He could see the long shadow beneath him mimic the slight movements of his armor as he continued to lean on the metal table.

"Can I go home?" he asked at last, deciding to finally appease the nagging thoughts that had been wailing from the recesses of his mind. He already had a fairly decent idea of what the answer would be. No matter how much he wanted for his assumptions to be proved wrong.

"I'm afraid not," he heard Ozpin say after a long pause. "Even the idea of you being from some different reality is only a theory."

"No matter how much you probably wish it weren't the case, we have no way of sending you back to wherever you came from," the man said somberly.

Arthur could feel it; feel his body grow numb as he began to think about what that truly meant. What it meant for everything he had ever been trained to do. Years of preparation and fighting, of learning and struggling? All for nothing. He felt strangely… cold. Yet his body did not shiver. He had faced many tragedies like this before and he had stared at each one with little more than an angry sneer. But this wasn't something that could just be glared at and then moved on from.

This was something that completely removed him from anything he ever knew. The only things that remained were his memories, his beliefs, and his equipment from being in the field. So what could he do now? If the city he was in now was any indication, this world had never faced an apocalypse. It hadn't torn itself apart over petty squabbles. He didn't know what to do.

"You know," Ozpin said, disrupting Arthur's thoughts and causing the boy's eyes rise to meet the professor's, "This world still needs protectors."

The statement caught the knight off guard. It was alluring though, a protector; a bulwark against the dangers that lurk behind every corner. Something that would have made Elder Owyn Lyons proud, even if he was on another world.

"What would I need to do?" Arthur said slowly, trying hard not to sound desperate to find new purpose.

The bespectacled man sat still for a moment, his eyes roamed up and down Arthur's face as if to try and find something that might make him retract whatever offer he was about to make. But at last, he spoke.

"Well first," he began, an expression of deep concentration upon his face, "I need to know that you intend to aid the people of Remnant, and that everything you do is for the betterment of all those who stand with you."

Arthur nodded immediately, finding that such things had once been asked of him by the brotherhood. Just as he had readily accepted then, believing that they are vital for the survival of man, he readily accepted now.

Finally, after Ozpin's serious expression remained for a full minute, the man's face changed to another small grin before he continued once more. "Then I suppose I only have one more question for you," he said, "How would you like to go to school?"

* * *

 **So what do you guys think? Is it too short or anything? I wanted it to be a bit longer, but I also didn't want it to feel like I was stretching it out too much. If you guys want, I can add the beginning of Arthur's ride to Beacon with the other trainees but I just thought that it would be better to have the entire ride to be its own chapter.**

 **In other news, I probably will take a while to have the next few chapters up. Once school hits I'm going to have to deal with the hectic few days that come with that return. So with that being said, don't get too worried about me abandoning this story. I will be back after I get back into the swing of juggling History Fair, an online class, and wrestling. Luckily, wrestling season will be over in about a month or so, and History Fair will be due at about the same time for my teacher to grade. With those two out of the way, I'm certain that I'll be able to start updating more often By about March or April because damn it, I will see at least one of my stories through to some kind of conclusion! So yeah, the next one is going to take somewhere from a month to a month and a half from now. Keep in mind that depending on your opinions I may also bang out an extra scene for this chapter before my break ends officially though.**

 **Also, Happy new year guys! I didn't really do much last night, except for hang out with my family for a couple of hours and watch the ball drop; but I enjoyed it and I hope you did too. Anyway, I will see you guys later, and hope to receive some good constructive criticism.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: This story was created for no personal gain other than enjoyment and improvement on my own writing skills. None of the characters within this story, or the universes they come from belong to me. RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth and Fallout belongs to Bethesda. Please support both series.**

Chapter 3: Back to School

Ruby Rose was known for many things. She was known for inhaling cookies unlike anyone had ever seen. She was known for being the fastest person at her school. She was known for going overboard on learning about, as well as designing, anything pertaining to guns and any assortment of melee weapons. And of course, she was known for wearing the red hood that her mother had gifted to her as a young child.

However, she was not known for being good with people. Especially not people around her age and of the opposite sex. Which of course was the reason her current predicament seemed so difficult to solve.

Only twenty feet ahead of her was the boy who had saved her life only a few days ago. A boy she only knew for a total of a half hour. So obviously, this meeting was probably going to be rather… _uncomfortable._

The giant suit of hulking armor didn't exactly help either. The teen was covered from head to toe in giant shiny plates made from some type of metal that simply gave him an air of invincibility. This appearance was made even more imposing and unapproachable by the design of said plates.

The body was a massive assortment of metal covered in giant rivets and steel bars that gave it a militaristic design. Each line and edge seemed to have some form of purpose as the metal indentations molded into the pieces lined up perfectly with one section or another that required room for maneuvering.

Accompanying it was a large metal tank paired with a set of thrusters that seemed to be bolted onto the back of the suit. The unit was covered in warning and caution labels that simply added to the overall industrial military feel that the armor gave off.

Not to mention that from head to toe the thing looked like a walking tank. Massive shoulder plates and huge limbs that were each about the size of a tree trunk, and the helmet was no different. It of course still kept to the efficient and military feel of the rest of the suit, along with it being absolutely huge, and also seemed to serve another purpose: intimidation.

The '"face" looked like that of some kind of predator made of steel. The eyepieces were angled into an angry glare as the angular edges of the lower mask-like front section came down into a metallic snout that ended in a respirator of some kind. The thing looked both terrifying and mysterious.

The whole thing seemed extremely complex and intricate though, and that was saying something coming from Ruby. Honestly, it made her nearly want to try and one-up the thing somehow. But that was getting off track; she needed to introduce herself and thank him.

"What are you looking at?" an inquisitive, feminine voice asked from beside Ruby.

With a small yelp, the young teen turned to see a blonde haired girl sporting a brown leather jacket with a yellow shirt underneath, an orange bandana around her neck, black shorts, and brown boots that came up to just below her knees accompanied by several more bandanas in an assortment of grays, purples, and yellows that sat just above them.

Her lavender colored eyes squinted ever so slightly as she peered in the direction of the giant knightly figure in the distance with a hand placed just above them as a makeshift shade. She continued to look about for anything specific that might have caught the fifteen year old's eye to no avail.

As she did so, her long main of blonde hair swayed back and forth, occasionally obstructing her rounded jaw, rosy cheeks, and petite nose from view. However, her brow and eyes seemed to remain in sight, continuously scanning the surrounding port.

However, even with the assortment of colorful shops and people that covered the area, she couldn't seem to pick out the one man who stood out the most from the crowd. Which was totally fine of course. Ruby really didn't want her to know about the other teen at the moment.

After all, how was she supposed to explain it? Did she just flat out say "this giant armored guy who looks really scary helped me stop the robbery the other day"? That didn't exactly seem like the best way to introduce the boy; especially not to your sister.

"Nothing Yang," Ruby said sheepishly, hoping that the blonde would continue to miss the large armored man.

Naturally, she wasn't so gullible as to just simply brush off the quiet and nervous tone in her little sister's voice. Thus, with an upturned eyebrow and an inquisitive look upon her face, Yang crossed her arms and turned to face the younger teen.

"Is that so?" She asked with an obvious sarcasm prevalent within her tone.

Ruby, already beginning to try and find a way out before her sister managed to pry out the truth, began laughing nervously as she scratched the back of her head and glanced to the hulking man who looked so out of place. Unfortunately, that glance was all Yang needed.

"Who's that?" she asked curiously as she pivoted slightly to get a better look at him.

Ruby's head drooped in defeat in an overly dramatic fashion as she sighed deeply. It seemed like this always happened when the young girl tried to hide something. Every time, without fail, Yang would notice Ruby acting strangely in one way or another and would discover what caused it purely through her sister's actions.

"One of the people who helped try to stop the robbery with me," she said in a mopey fashion with her head still hanging low.

Part of Ruby hoped that keeping her eyes pointed at the bright grey concrete beneath them would somehow stop her sister from trying to introduce herself. Of course, it didn't.

"Well we should go talk to him then!" Yang told her happily.

Ruby's head shot up with a look of terror spreading across her face. She couldn't let this happen! There had to be a way to stop this; anything to stop this.

"Wait!" she pleaded quickly as her sister began marching towards the teen, "I don't even really know him yet."

The blonde stopped mid-step at that. Ruby could feel a wave of dread begin to rise within her as she slowly turned back to face the younger sister. The feeling began to grow even worse when she saw the look on the girl's face.

She looked like someone had just given her a new toy. Her face had morphed into a devious grin while one blonde eye brow had risen to give her the look of someone with evil plots fluttering in their head. It wasn't a comforting look for Ruby to find.

"Well then let's go get to know him!" she cheered.

The blonde quickly hooked an arm around the younger girl's shoulders as she marched happily over to the boy. Ruby, however, was much less enthused. She began digging the heels of her black and red combat boots into the ground before her, hoping to halt Yang's progress. Sadly, all it accomplished was a slight delay and Yang's grin turning to one of determination.

* * *

Arthur stared wide eyed behind his helmet at the port around him. Honestly, he found that he had been doing it quite often since his arrival to Remnant. Even after his little chat with Ozpin about some of the basic information about the world, he was almost awestruck with the things he had seen.

The man had naturally given him a crash course about the history of Remnant, the species that resided upon it, and the monsters that the citizens of Remnant faced. Each subject seemed so similar, yet vastly different to the ones of Earth. Even the monsters that remained a constant threat, though Earth's equivalent was a direct side- effect of mankind's own need to destroy itself.

Yet Arthur found that the subject he was most amazed with (even more so than the fact that there were people walking around with tails and cat, dog, or monkey ears which were a really strange subject all their own) was the technological advancements that the people had made. Not too surprising, considering who he was really.

He had watched in awe as people carried around small computers and portable phones that seemed like something out of a novel written before the apocalypse. What was more, they could pull an assortment of information from them as well.

People could learn the local news, find information on political debates, and a myriad of other useful or simply interesting tidbits about the world around them. Personally, Arthur found the idea amazing.

To be certain, such technology was still somewhat worrisome, but he seriously doubted any government was foolish enough to leave sensitive files on this "net" that the rest of the world's information resided on. Hell, if the countries of Earth were sensible enough to keep news about the world's impending doom from breaking out, then surely this world's governments were at least competent enough to leave certain things away from almost literally everyone's fingertips.

Now that's not to say Arthur wasn't still suspicious, far from it in fact. He knew that there was always the danger of the wrong scientific inventions being made or researched, and he knew that, from where he was now, he wouldn't be able to do much about them.

So his best bet would be to use Ozpin's offer to learn more about the world of remnant through taking classes at Beacon Academy. After all, if he was to protect the people, he would have to learn about those people and what dangers they faced.

So, here he was. Standing in a bustling "Dropship Landing Port" as the sign had called it, waiting for his ride to Beacon. Well, that was what he was doing until he felt something collide with the back of his hulking armored frame, making a small clang as it connected.

* * *

Ruby stumbled back in a slight daze as she rubbed the bridge of her nose in pain. She could feel heat rising off of the small facial feature when she wiggled it back and forth in hopes of making the pain go away.

The young girl grumbled to herself silently as she continued to scrunch up her face in annoyance. Stupid Yang and her stupid brute strength. Apparently, digging your feet into the ground and making it hard to be pushed forward doesn't mean "stop" to Yang. To her, it somehow means "throw me."

How could she do that to her little sister? Her own flesh and blood? Does she even understand the meaning of sisterly love? Apparently not.

This was cruelty; better yet, this was abuse! Actually, no! She knew what this was.

Betrayal to the highest degree! That was what it was. Well, two could play at that game. Victory would be hers. It will be known that Ruby Rose, soon to be the greatest huntress the world had ever seen, would not allow such treachery!

Yes, there would be planning. There would be vengeance. There would be justice for Yang's actions. Soon; soon she would know that one does not trifle with a rose unless one intends to meet the thorns!

Ruby grinned at the ground beneath her feet as a plethora of ideas poured forth: Neon green hair dyes to be used on the sleeping traitor, cookies baked with jalapenos within, and a thousand more cruel ideas.

She began to rub her hands together in imitation of every cheesy villain stereotype she had ever seen; maniacal chuckle and all. Revenge would be sweet indeed. But more importantly, it would be _hers_.

"Miss Rose?" A distorted and metallic voice called out to her, forcing the young girl's mind to come crashing back down into the realm of reality.

Ruby squeaked in surprise as her body spun to face the voice, her eyes going wide as she did so. Towering above her, a certain armored teen stared down at Ruby as the suit's angry mask bored into her with its pitch black eyepieces.

"Yes?" Ruby asked quickly, mentally kicking herself for forgetting exactly what, or rather who, she had hit in the first place.

"Are you alright?" Arthur asked, tilting his head to the side as he did.

Ruby could feel her face go beat red at the question. Did he just see that? Did she seriously start her introduction with a crazy daydream and psychotic chuckling?

The girl's blush began to grow even darker as she shrank beneath the boy's gaze. This was going horribly already.

The young huntress' eyes zeroed in on the metal boots of the boy, trying desperately to find words. Too bad none came to her.

Instead, her face remained a deep crimson as sweat began to bead-up on the back of her neck. She honestly had no idea how to respond. She couldn't exactly say everything was "fine" because she totally just went to La La Land and she sure as all hell wasn't going to admit to doing that.

Luckily, or perhaps unluckily depending on how things were about to play out, Ruby's awkward silence with the hulking teen ended soon enough. But of course, it didn't end in a way likely to be very helpful to the poor scythe wielder.

"Oh good!" came the bright voice of Yang as she strolled up next to Ruby and proceeded to throw an arm across her little sister's shoulders, "looks like my aim is still spot on huh?"

Ruby's head shot to the side as she glared at the blonde. This was not a good thing at all, and it was obvious to see that Yang knew it from the conniving grin plastered on her face when she met her little sister's eyes.

"I'm sorry," came the warbled synthetic voice from the metal man in front of the siblings, "I don't believe we've met."

Ruby watched her sister's grin morphed into a full smile of excitement when she turned to the boy. The younger sibling didn't like that smile in any way, shape, or form.

"Yang Xiao Long!" the blonde exclaimed, shooting out a hand for the young man to shake, "I hear that you're the one who saved Ruby the other night."

The boy accepted Yang's hand and gave it a firm shake while nodding his head.

"Yes mam," Arthur said curtly, "and, if I may ask, what is your relation to Miss Rose?"

"Well I'm her sister of course!" Yang said happily, even though it obviously wasn't something you could tell without someone specifically telling you they were siblings.

One of the side effects of being half-sisters, Ruby supposed.

The metal man seemed to stop for a moment, cocking his head to the side in apparent surprise. Naturally, no one could blame him for not being able to tell. If memory served her, Ruby could still recall a time when even relatives had been thrown off by the vastly different appearances between the two.

"Of course," he replied with a hint of hesitance.

"You know," Yang said, "I never caught your name, tin man."

"Arthur," he answered with more confidence in his robotic voice.

"Well Arthur," Yang said, finally releasing Ruby from her grasp and folded her arms, "is there any particular reason for the mask, or do you just like scaring people?"

He seemed to stop for a moment before realization apparently dawn on him and he reached up to begin pulling off his helmet. There was the sound of two synchronized clicks and a small huff as his metal fingers worked quickly to remove the protective headwear. Soon enough, the angry mask was raised over his head and quickly clipped onto a small latch on his waist, revealing his face.

What came into view was certainly not what one would expect to be beneath such an imposing suit of armor. Instead of an old chiseled face covered in a massive beard, it was extremely young with peach fuzz just barely sprouting out from the edge of the jaw. However, aside from the lack of facial hair and the youthful quality to it, Arthur still gave off the appearance of some hero from one of Ruby's favorite children's stories.

Indeed, every other aspect about him screamed hero. From the strong square jaw to the piercing blue eyes that seemed to shine with bravery. He even had jet black hair that fell and covered his scalp in a cloak of blackness. And, as if to complete the look, a long grey scar ran from his left cheek bone down to the bottom of his jaw.

Ruby quickly tore her gaze away from the boy to see her sister's reaction. Like one would expect, Yang wore a rather similar expression of shock to the one Ruby had dawned a few nights prior when she had first encountered the extremely young, be it weathered, face; wide eyes and all.

"Sorry," Arthur said after a moment, still managing to keep his rather official tone even with his much younger voice. "I probably should have kept the thing off in public."

Yang sputtered for a few seconds, struggling to get her mind rolling again before seeming to finally catch back up with reality.

"No problem," she mumbled, betraying her rather stunned surprise in a rather distracted tone, "I just didn't expect you to be so…"

The blonde's sentence trailed off into silence for a moment, most likely having difficulty deciding on the proper words to use to describe what all three knew she was referring to.

"Young?" Arthur supplied at last, a small grin spreading across his face.

"Well yeah," Ruby replied, finally putting in her two cents, her previous embarrassment long gone thanks to the new subject, "who wouldn't be surprised?"

"Trust me, there's a good reason for it," he said with an apologetic smile.

Not one to be placated so easily, Ruby raised an eyebrow as her head cocked to the side in curiosity.

"Why?" she asked.

Arthur crossed his arms and shifted to face her completely. He stood at least a full foot taller than her at full height and it was really nerve wracking for the small teen.

"Unfortunately," he began, sounding even more official, if that were even possible, "I'm not at liberty to disclose such information at this time."

Ruby scrunched up her nose at his reply, crossing her arms and puffing out her cheeks at the same time. It was bad enough when people who were older than her acted superior to her, now Arthur was doing it too.

"More importantly," Yang piped up from beside the two of them, her shock now finally turned to curiosity of her own apparently, "how are you so tall if you look like you're the same age as Ruby?"

"Well," Arthur began after a moment of contemplation, allowing his voice to become slightly less serious, "I guess that one really isn't much of a secret anyway."

Before Ruby could ask how, she began to hear the sound of whirring mechanisms and a distinct set of clicks emanate from Arthur's suit. Her eyes went wide when she saw the boy's suit seem to open from the back, causing the metal plates that once protected Arthur's back to rotate outwards. It reminded her vaguely of watching a flower bloom.

Ruby's jaw was once again hanging wide as she looked at the giant metal suit that looked more like the empty shell of a metal spider that grew too big for its exoskeleton. Part of her was excited and the other was just dumbfounded.

"The Armor's feet and hands are extensions that make me seem bigger than I really am," Arthur said, almost as if he were giving a short lecture.

Ruby blinked for a moment before realizing that Arthur had left the suit. He now stood beside the opened armor in a pair of scuffed black combat boots, torn and fraying tan cargo pants that came down to his ankles, a faded black t-shirt, and a worn leather jacket that looked reminiscent to an old military officer's coat.

The sight was actually rather jarring for her. She wasn't exactly sure what she was expecting him to look like without the armor, but it wasn't so… worn down. To be fair, he still held himself with an air of confidence and focus, and he still easily stood a full head taller than Ruby herself. But the lack of armor, the shredded attire he currently dawned, and his disheveled hair made him look like he had been living out in the wilderness his whole life. Really, he looked like someone who went to hell and back.

"Gees," Yang said after a few moments of silence, "You make it sound simple."

Arthur just smirked at the comment, almost like he had expected the statement. Actually, he probably was now that Ruby thought about it.

"Yeah," he said with a small shrug, allowing his authoritarian demeanor to fall, "it sounds like it when I put it that way, huh?"

"So how does it work?" Ruby asked, her inner tech nerd to finally get the better of her.

Once again, Arthur reverted back to his serious tone and crossed his arms back across his chest. Ruby could already tell what his answer was going to be and she already knew that it was going to irritate her for all eternity until she figured out how the suit worked.

"That part," Arthur replied, "is definitely classified Miss Rose."

The young girl glared at the boy and growled while he simply stared right back at her. What was so important about keeping the suit a secret? They were all on the same side weren't they? It's not like anyone was at war in the kingdoms, and Ruby knew for a fact that almost any other hunter on all of Remnant would be more than happy to show off how their personal weapon worked. Besides, this was like Ruby's thing. How could she not get mad when people kept tech out of her reach?

"I don't mean to interrupt," Yang said, "but this is kind of making a scene."

Yang gestured towards the hulking armor that stood ominously beside the trio. The massive suit was still opened, giving off an intimidating presence which the people in the port obviously picked up on. People were openly staring at the thing and, by extension, the three teens. The slight sound of quiet whispers and curious murmuring seemed to surround them.

"Right," Arthur replied quickly, moving to the back of the armor again with a rather crisp turn on his heel.

Another round of clicks and whirring noises reached Ruby's ears when she watched Arthur disappear back behind the suit. Then, just as quickly as it had begun, the sounds stopped and the only thing left visible of Arthur was his head and the mop of black hair atop it.

Unfortunately, the action only seemed to make the muttering of the surrounding people increase slightly. Ruby supposed the whole scene probably would seem bizarre for people who weren't accustomed to witnessing hunters. Not to mention almost no one would be used to seeing a teenage boy enter a hulking suit of shiny metal armor like he was putting on a jacket, even she wasn't used to that one really. Still, it didn't make her any less uncomfortable.

"Maybe we should just head to our gate," Ruby offered after a small, awkward glance to the people around them.

"Agreed," Arthur mumbled quietly, apparently also uncomfortable with all the looks he was getting.

"Awesome," she said hurriedly, "Yang, where are we headed?"

"What?" Yang asked, "You both have stage fright? And I thought one was bad."

"Just get us out of here!" Ruby growled, glaring at her sister who simply smirked at the girl's discomfort.

"Alright," the blonde sighed dramatically, "I suppose I'll save the unsocial duo."

Ruby groaned inwardly, already dreading the no doubt long ride to Beacon with her teasing sister that awaited her.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Okay, this has been a long time coming. Now, I know some of you might hate me for how short this feels. And if you're mad about it then let me know. If you guys are upset with the length of the chapter or the amount of stuff that did and or did not happen here then please say "hey, what the fuck man?" (Don't actually do this I'm joking.)**

 **Either way, if you guys would like I can add in the trip to Beacon from Arthur's perspective. It will probably still take a week to get it done but I think I can pump it out quickly enough for you guys. The main reason it isn't here is because I simply wanted to get this chapter out there before people started to assume that I had just quit or something. No, I am in fact still here and plan to keep posting.**

 **I also wanted to put this up so I can let you guys know that I have in fact noticed this story has basically blown up. Since the first two chapters came out you guys started coming out of the woodwork and I must say, I'm totally honored by that. So, in order to show my appreciation, and to let you guys know that I am paying attention to the reviews, I would like to tell you that I will start answering questions whenever I can.**

 **Furthermore, I have noticed that I received a review from a user by the name of Bear of Cali who suggested that I add in more Fallout lore. So far, I've been planning on sticking to the main story with a few changes to it. The main one being that Arthur throws a fit about Penny being a Synth and then basically goes on a crusade against her when shit starts to hit the fan down the road. Now though, since Bear of Cali brought it up I have considered having Fallout bleed into Remnant and causing a lot more stuff to go down. This will seriously change some things. Things I am not at liberty to tell you, but things none the less. (Note that Arthur will still end up going after Penny)**

 **So please, let me know if you guys prefer me sticking closely to the original RWBY plot or if you guys want it to branch off some. I would love to know which one you guys prefer and I think I can make a pretty decent story out of either one. I'll probably let you guys decide over the next two chapters or so too on account of it not really changing much until after initiation. So no pressure if you can't decide right off the bat yeah?**

 **Finally, I want to know whether or not you guys want me to make this RubyxArthur. The reason being that I don't want to play around with them being a thing unless you guys are cool with it. I want to do it mainly because it gives me a chance to work on writing romance and I think that it would be interesting once Arthur starts up the whole Penny arc. But if you guys don't like it then I won't do it. Voting for that won't close for a while either by the way. Until a decision has been made on it though I will still be laying the ground work for it so please don't kill me when the two start getting all uncomfortable around each other.**

 **Review response**

 **Mr Fizz: Arthur hasn't killed anyone. He doesn't know that he hasn't killed anyone but he never cared to ask. The reason being that in the wastes it doesn't really matter whether you kill them or not. Luckily for Arthur though, there's this thing called aura that keeps people from dying after getting shot a few times. Regarding the Faunus, you'll find out later I can assure you.**

 **Dead Pann: Yes, most normal subjects would be pointless for Arthur. However, learning about Remnant's history, how to fight Grimm, and how Aura works are all perfectly good reasons for him to go to Beacon.**

 **Guest from chapter 2: He is wearing T-60 power armor. Check chapter 1 because I think it says it when he gets up off the ground. If it doesn't then please let me know so I can fix it.**

 **KingArthur3: yes, the only weapon he has is the laser rifle… for now. Also, no Pipboy because the way I am writing it, his power armor basically does everything a Pipboy can. Except for let him carry around a bottomless sack for obvious reasons.**

 **Firestorm808: They just got knocked out.**

 **Brandon Vortex: I don't know if he'll star up a whole new chapter but he will definitely leave a mark on Remnant.**

 **Okay, I think that was the last of the questions. If I missed any please let me know so I can go back and answer them.**

 **Thanks for Reading guys! Please drop a review if you haven't already and try not to cry next weekend when volume 3 comes to a close!**


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